The present invention relates to a method and structure for forming two or more separate heat sinks on a single module in an arrangement having a heat sink within a heat sink (or nested heat sinks) and with each heat sink respectively coupled to each of a plurality of devices (die, socket) having different heights.
Modern electronic components typically include numerous circuits operating at high speed and generating substantial heat. In many applications, it is desirable to employ one or more heat sinks to remove heat from the electronic heat-generating components, such as central processing units (CPUs), etc., to assure that the components function properly and reliably. A heat sink is a passive heat exchanger that cools the device by dissipating heat into the surrounding medium. A typical heat sink comprises a base for contacting with the heat-generating component to absorb the heat originated from the heat-generating component and a plurality of parallel planar fins attached to the base. The fins are used for dissipating the heat to ambient air.
With the development of various types of electronic modules, an array of many discrete components may be mounted to a surface of a single circuit board, a substrate, or a chip carrier package. In some circumstances, more than one of the components must be cooled. Since the components are generally of different heights and their top surfaces are thus at different levels, conventional heat sinks can not meet the requirement to intimately contact with the top surfaces of the components simultaneously to remove the heat from all the components. Thus, more than one of individual heat sinks needs to be employed to remove heat from each component. Accordingly, a large amount of space is required to install the heat sinks, thus restricting space for other components; furthermore, it is both expensive and time-consuming to attach individual heat sinks to each component.